WK1

If my comments can make people think more 'deeply' it is indeed gratifying.

It was right after the Gongsun couple's death that the elderly Mr Qin commented and then ask her, "They have chosen their path; what is your path?" I think this would be the first instance that she would be asked this question (the 2nd time will be at the Liuyun Temple, in front of that giant Taoist calligraphy).

That first instance of being asked what is her path could well be starting point of her shift in priority or purpose in life. Seeing how much the Gongsun couple loved the lives of ordinary citizens above their own must have made her realise how selfish her personal agenda or path is, of wanting revenge for her parents.

Thereafter, instead of resisting the inevitable and tyring to fight the Ashile troops till death, she would fulfill Gongun's wishes and surrender the city to Ashile troops, on condition that the lives of ordinary citizens would be spared.

She would now be prepared to see where destiny would lead her, in her journey to find her Tao. And Ashile Sun would soon be part of her path in life, when she finds love at the grasslands. The drama changed this part of the story from the manhua quite significantly, in pushing their romantic arc forward, and give their love story a longer runway.

From this point on, Ashile Sun will always be there to protect her. And one-sided affection would soon turn to mutual love, when she came to full understanding of what it means to be a woman.

They needed to make this change, because the primary market for this drama is still the China market. And viewers there will always expect to see more romance than what is portrayed in the manhua.

Yes, that much we know. They both returned to the grasslands. As to who is the Ashile tribe or the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, we don't really know. Ashile Sun is a fictional character drawn by an artist, hence events in the drama may not be what exactly happened in history

If we wish to follow fiction and speculate, very likely AS took over as the next Khan. At lease temporarily. His adoptive father is too ill to lead. Yicheng is dead. She'er has gone elsewhere, and not interested to be the next Khan.

That is why, we see AS in his battle gear, he has gone back to the Eagles' division, settled things there, very likely made Mujin, his trusted assistant the next leader of Eagles' division, while he himself became the next Khan. This is one possible scenario.

But, I doubt he wants to be the next Khan for too long. After what has happened, I don't he wants to be constantly fighting. If so, as the next Khan, he may want to have a long peace treaty with the Tang Dynasty, so that they will not fight each other for as long as is possible. This is highly possible, since AS left Tang on very good terms.

As the next Khan, he may want to unit all the different tribes that are in the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, and even make peace with the Western Turkic Khaganate. So, lots of possibilities

But, in the long term, I will still see him as wanting to spend time with Changge, the woman he loved. It makes no sense for him to go back to becoming a warrior again, after what he has gone through.

Haha! The two of you are just too kind. I just love staying here to enjoy all the conversations with everyone.

Here is my interpretation of those deaths and what it could have meant for CG. A'Dou death was dear to her personally. His death would be the death of another person very dear to her, following the death of her own parents. So, she took it rather personally and wanted revenge for A'Dou, the same way she wanted revenage for her parents' death. A'Dou death tested her pain endurance threshold. And she took revenge for A'Dou soon after. But, it was a risky decision to charge out of that city and attack the Bear's division. In her rage to kill the guy who killed A'Dou, in that battle, she did not see that someone was actually at her back and would have killed her, if AS did not shoot the guy with his arrow.

She did not really learn all that much from A'Dou's death, except that it was painful to see someone she loved dearly died so unjustly (as A'Dou as just a young boy).

But the Hengs' death were slightly different. They died willingly, to save the ordinary citizens of Shouzhou. Their death would show how her much the Hengs were willing to sacrifice for their people, that the lives of ordinary Tang citizens were more precious than their own lives,

And right after Hengs' death, the old Mr Qin would tell her the Gongsun couple have chosen to put the lives of Tang citizens more important than their own lives, what about her? What would be her 'path'?

I think this did two things for CG. First, it helped her to put her desire to kill Li Simin on hold. Later, in the grasslands, when she knew how much Li Simin will be willing to do for Tang, she would even be willing to save him (that scene where she shot the arrow to break the cup).

The second thing is that, their deaths also taught her to be more realistic, in terms of how much they can fight back against the Ashile troops. Instead of being consumed by the suicide of the Heng couple and wanting to take revenge for them, which was her reaction after A'Dou death, she knew that the best she could do was to surrender, but to surrender with the lives of the people intact. Her reaction was already less rash or impulsive. She knew that the Ashile troops outnumbered the soldiers at that city, and if they keep fighting, more soldiers will die and more citizens will suffer.

Both the producer and the director for TLB had worked with Dilraba before. The director directed her last historical just before this one. That drama is entitled Eternal Love of Dream.

The producer for TLB also produced another drama called Love Designer. In that drama, Dilraba is also the female lead.

That is how they were able to find her. She was already right in front of them! They just needed to persuade her to take this role, playing Li Changge.

I think it is not very likely that Xia Da drew Li Changge based on Dilraba's look. The director was just saying the resemblance is so strong, it just looked as if Xia Da did it. It just appear that way to him, not that he really felt Xia Da did it.

Changge's flaws only made her more realistic and relatable. She would have looked like those superheroes in a Marvel movie, if she did not have those flaws. Yet, what amazed us all was that she would learn very quickly from all her mistakes.

From the start of the drama till the last episode, it was only a short 3 to 3 plus years. And during that short period of time, she grew from being an impulsive young girl to a woman who is mature way beyond her age. She would now learn to listen and not jump to conclusion. Would now think about consequences, before taking any action. Yet, her essential qualities will still be there: her intelligence, bravery and her talents.

When I read the manhua, I felt that the artist who drew her did an incredible job. She was not only an intelligent girl, but one who was very elegant. Very classy.

When they found Dilraba to play Li Changge, I thought to myself, they found the perfect actress to play her. Other than her height and size difference, she would be every bit the Li Changge that we know from the manhua. The Changge that she portrayed, that we saw on our TV screen or computer screen would be one that is brave, intelligent, full of talents, yet one that is ethical and makes decisions that would not harm anyone.

Ok. You are charmed by her beauty too? I usually do not like to talk about her beauty, because it might distract us from appreciating her talents an actress.

There are lots of beautiful women in China, given its large population. So, it will not be too difficult to find one as beautiful as her. But they will not be abe to act as well as her. So many become models. We will see them more often in magezines or commercials, but not in dramas or movies.

There are also many who can act, but perhaps less beautiful than her. We will still be enchanted by their acting abilities. But to find a beautiful woman who can also act as well as her, that is indeed rare.

Someone here always use this phrase to describe her: beautiful inside out. Because apart from her stunning beautiful face, she has the most wonderful personality.

This is where there was also a slight deviation from the manhua. In the manhua, A'Dou was not killed at this point. I think it was MK916 who mentioned to me, or someone else, that A''Dou was never killed in the manhua at all

But here in the drama, the screenwriters killed off the A'Dou character in E14. Perhaps to add more grief content for Changge??

I think we did discuss the role of the Gongsun couple in affecting Changee. I did discuss this particular scene with a few others, mentioning how it was like a triple blow for Changge. First to have A'Dou died; and second, the couple died. And third, the old Mr Qin asking Changge, what is your 'Tao'. Just grief upon grief for Changge and how it must have affected her.

Yeah. This is an open forum, and we do not have the power to forbid them to join us. But, it is very easy to see where they are coming from. Their contents will usually reveal their motives. And over time, if we can just keep ignoring them, they will go away.

In general, there are very few such 'misplaced' individuals here. We still get our daily dose of great conversations among like minded people.

I listened to the advice by one commentator who said, when we encounter people like that, just ignore. Don't engage. The more we engage, the more they are energised. Once we keep ignoring them, most will just go away. Only one or two will stay back to talk to themselves. These people could be very lonely, with no where to go. I really pity them.

Ok, you have watched those interviews? Then, you know exactly what I meant. They wanted no one but Dilraba to play Li Changge. When she turned it down initially, they would ask her to reconsider. It would turn out to be a great decision by both sides

No no. I knew you were not replying to me. I was also not replying to you. I just clicked the reply and it fell to your name. No offense to you or to anyone in particular. Just wanted to make it clear, I knew that Li Changge, when she was fist drawn by Xia Da, was not visually modeled after Dilraba. We are all good

Please do read my post carefully. I did not say the manhua author drew her character based on Dilraba. I knew full well when the manhua was out, she must have been relatively unknown. Xia Da could not have known her, when she drew her CGX.

Let me quote myself: it is as if the manhua author had her in mind, when she drew her Li Changge

The above sentence is a my paraphrase of what the director of TLB said in an interview. When you watch the video in the link I will provide, you might understand why I wrote what I wrote.

When the producer had the idea to make a drama out of the manhua, she wanted someone to resemble Changge. It was indeed a fluke that Dilraba looked like Li Changge. But it was no fluke that she was chosen. It was deliberate, and a lot of it has to do with her resemblance to Li Changge. The producer will mention her mole in the interview in the link I will provide.

There was another interview that I watched and again she mentioned Dilraba's mole. But I lost that link.

You can watch the link I do have and make your own conclusion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haTxH0Y1qfU&t=19s

These are the kind of complex thoughts some people will never understand

1. Yes. That is perhaps why you were so impressed by Li Changge. She did have the opportunity to run away from Shuozhou. But she chose to stay back and fight for the life of ordinary citizens of that city. At that surrender scene, she bravely bargained for the survival of all the people of that city, and she traded her freedom for those people. It is her struggle that impressed us all. When you relate about what the Dubai ruler do, even in the 21st century, it really make me sad. Women are still being used as tools in certain parts of the world. The only consolation will be that his 12 year old daughter will have a relatively good life. Apart from personal freedom, she will have everything.
2. The manhua is up there, in the Recent Discussion portion. You can read it, whenever you can find the time.
3. At the 'tree' moment, in Episode 49, about 7 mins 30 seconds into the video, they were discussing the 3 wishes that Changge had promised A'Sun. After the second wish, Changge asked him, why don't you tell me your third wish? While responding to her question, please note his eye. He was looking at her body up and down. Many of us feel that for the third wish, he would want her to start making babies with him soon. It is a cheeky interpretation, but a realistic one. After all, when they do get to the grasslands, making babies will indeed be one the things they will do, amongst many others.

Hao Du: Ok, I know you are very busy. It will great if you could at least set aside some time for me to kill you.
Changge: You really need a new hobby you know? You and your old man have been trying to track me down since episode 2. Don't you ever get tired?
Hao Du: What to do? That is the only thing we are good at this entire series
Changge: Maybe I should teach you how to play cuju ball
Hao Du: That will be great! Could I have my sword with me during the game? I feel so naked without it
Changge: Why? You are not trying to kill me during the game, are you?
Hao Du: No, no! That will be beneath my dignity, to kill you during a game. I will kill you fair and square.
Changge: You do know that that know I have a very capable personal bodyguard who can easily beat you fair and square?
Hao Du: Oh, I forgot about that guy. In that case, I must really try to kill you during a cuju game
Changge: But you are not allowed to bring a sword to a cuju game!
Hao Du: Then how? Today you are not free. Next Tuesday you do not know your schedule. I cannot kill you fair and square because of your bodyguard, I cannot kill you during cuju ball game. Then how? Could you please tell me, when and how I could kill you?
Changge: Right, that is a very good question. Could we wait till Season 2 of TLB? I am a little busy now.

Very funny!!
Can I add?
Changge: How about let me think about it next Tuesday?